Queen of the Pacific
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Queen of the Pacific is a name or nickname of ships and places associated with the Pacific Ocean, the largest of Earth's oceans.
[edit] Ships
- In 1852, at the height of the age of the fast clipper sailing ships, the clipper Queen of the Pacific was launched from Pembroke, Maine.[1]
- In 1857, the wooden side-wheel steamer Queen of the Pacific was built and launched for the San Francisco-Nicaragua line of the Morgan and Garrison partnership. By 1859, Cornelius Vanderbilt owned it and renamed it the Ocean Queen for transatlantic service. It was subsequently owned and operated by the Quartermaster's Department of the U.S War Department, the New York-Aspinwall service, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and Ruger Brothers before being broken up in 1874.[2]
- In 1888, the loss of a Queen of the Pacific in what was then called Port Harford (later renamed Port San Luis) brought forward the installation of the much needed Point San Luis Light in San Luis Obispo County, California. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1901 on liability for damage to that ship's cargo.[3]
- In 1891, the 25,000-ton 3-funnel steam ocean liner RMS Empress of Japan was hailed as the Queen of the Pacific when she was commissioned for the trans-Pacific run. This ship's figurehead has been twice preserved, the original in the Vancouver Maritime Museum and a fiberglass replica in Vancouver's Stanley Park.[4]
- The Hikawa-Maru, an NYK Line passenger liner built in 1929, was nicknamed the Queen of the Pacific by its passengers. The only Imperial Japanese mainstream passenger liner to survive World War II, it is retired from service and has been permanently berthed near Yamashita Park in Yokohama, Japan since 1961.[5]
- The United States Coast Guard Cutter Taney was called the Queen of the Pacific while serving as the unofficial flagship of the Coast Guard's Pacific Area commander in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Cruise books for this Queen of the Pacific are in the collection of the Coast Guard Cutter Cruise Book Preservation Center.[6]
[edit] Places
- Countries
- Tahiti - the "Queen of the Pacific" in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and in Francis Allyn Olmsted's Incidents of a Whaling Voyage.[7]
- States
- California - "the youthful Queen of the Pacific, in her robes of freedom, gorgeously inlaid with gold," in a speech by William H. Seward to the United States Senate in 1850.[8]
- Cities
- Old Panama City - called the Queen of the Pacific before pirate Henry Morgan burned it.[11]
[edit] References
- ^ "Also to sail that January, were the Maine clippers Flying Arrow, Golden Racer, Queen of the Pacific, and Wings of the Morning." (1852, launched from Pembroke)
- ^ 1857: Queen of the Pacific built. 1859: purchased by Vanderbilt and renamed Ocean Queen. 1861: chartered to US War Department. 1869-70: chartered to Ruger's American Line. 1875: scrapped."
- ^ History of Port San Luis. 180 U.S. 49 THE QUEEN OF THE PACIFIC No 130 decided January 7, 1901.
- ^ "Known as The Queen of the Pacific, the Empress of Japan had soon broken the Pacific speed-record."
- ^ MV Hikawa Maru: Queen of the Pacific
- ^ USCGC Taney WHEC-37 "Queen of the Pacific" Viet Nam 1969-1970
- ^ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Chapter XVIII - Vanikoro "On 15th of December, we left to the east the bewitching group of the Societies and the graceful Tahiti, queen of the Pacific." Incidents of a Whaling Voyage, Chapter XXVI - South Pacific "The 'queen of the Pacific,' a proud title that has been given to this island."
- ^ Classic Senate Speeches: William H. Seward, "Freedom in the New Territories" March 11, 1850. (Full text.)
- ^ Andrew Wilson (15 April 2006). "A Star is Reborn" (html). The Guardian. “Acapulco, once the 'Queen of the Pacific' and last word in Hollywood cool, is on the comeback trail after a $1 billion facelift.”
- ^ Honolulu's chosen nickname is "The Queen of the Pacific."
- ^ Old Panama: the Queen of the Pacific.
- ^ The Final Voyage of the SS Central America "The Ship of Gold" 1857, Chapter III - The Voyage by Normand E. Klare. "San Francisco had been several times destroyed by fire. Each reconstruction of the city saw improvement as it progressed from a city of canvas to one of wood, then to a metropolis of bricks, a thriving port city. By 1853 she was called the Queen of the Pacific."
